She Walks the Halls

In Which She Warms Up

Adley's eyes widened slightly. Simone grinned back at her. She got to her feet and left her room, leaving Adley speechless as she watched her go. She trailed Simone down the stairs and to the kitchen. The two kids from earlier, Drew and Angie was sitting at the table working on homework.

Both the twins had curly black hair like Simone, but the girl, Angie had it in little braids around her head covered in small butterfly hairclips. The boy had one of his front teeth missing, but his smile was still sweet and innocent. Angie had a matching ensemble, wearing almost completely green (her shoes and plastic bracelets were purple). She had a mischievous grin on her face, just like her sister. Her hair clips rattled when she moved her head.

Simone's father was a very large man. He stood tall at around six feet, possibly taller, with a muscular build. He towered over Adley's petite body, but he was anything but intimidating, despite everyone being intimidating to her. He seemed very kind and silly. He had a movie star's face with kind, parental eyes. His bald head shone in the sun beaming through the windows while he played on his phone, next to the twins. He was able to make Adley smile even though she was pretty scared of talking to him and embarrassing herself in front of Simone.

"Hey, dad," Simone cleared her throat, "We're done if you want to start dinner now."

"Great! Let the get the stuff," He left the room for a moment that came right back empty handed, "Everything's already in the kitchen!" He deadpanned. The twins laughed at their goofy dad.

"So, we'll make the sauce?" Simone asked.

"Sure, honey. Crushed tomatoes are in the pantry."

"What are we making, again?"

"The famous Flores family pizza!" The family answered in response. Each of them had different degrees of enthusiasm. Mr. Flores said it like he was Oprah giving away a car or a game show host all the time. Simone did not want to announce it. She grumbled along with them but wasn't happy about it. She rolled her eyes at her siblings while they screeched the pizza's title like it was actually famous. Adley couldn't help but giggle at the harmonious family. Everyone worked together in a way that made it seem busy, but it was so easy to be around them. It was peacefully chaotic. All Adley had ever known was the latter.

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Adley was still shy around my family. She made quiet small talk with my dad, but that's about it. It was awkward, to say the least. To say the most, it went a little like this:

"So you strain the tomatoes. Then add the cream," my dad instructed, "It is too quiet! Adley, what kind music do you like? I'll put it on the radio."

"I like indie stuff like Bright Eyes. Anything acoustic though is good for me."

Dad set to work, tuning our little old school radio to Coffee House. An acoustic version of a twenty-one pilots song began to blast. Adley seemed to smile a bit more when she heard the "blurry face" line set to guitar instead of heavy drum beats.

The majority exchanges were similar to that. My dad would give us instructions to help with dinner and try to make small talk, but she clammed up and gave one-word answers.

"Then stir the pesto for a bit while you tell me what kids these days are watching on TV."

"I spent the summer bingeing Riverdale after I finished reading Archie."

"No way! You read all of the Archie comics?"

"The 2015 relaunch, yes."

"Oh were the 1940's too much work?" She nodded. She always nodded. She would nod or shake her head and then try to avoid conversation for about five minutes until the sauce's next step comes.

Our next step wouldn't come for a few more hours.

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SORRY THAT THIS IS SO SHORT! I have no excuses but yeah here it is I promise to do better next week!